By Heather M. Aitken

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On Two’s and 2048

This has very little to do with Korea. Rather, its a response to my friends who have asked whether I play 2048… There is no short answer to that question.

Call it synesthesia, if you will.

Call it congenital psychosis.

It’s unimportant.

The fact of the matter is… Well… I hate 2’s.

I always have. I have nightmares of being locked in a room with walls covered in 2’s. I wake up, drenched in sweat, with my ears buzzing, skin crawling, and everything I see is the colour of grey vomit. It’s dreadful. I sit there writing 5’s and counting primes in my diary trying to calm down and eventually the world comes back into focus.

So when friends started suggesting I play 2048, I was suitably disgusted. You want me to match powers of 2 until I get to 2^11? Ah no, that is not an acceptable form of procrastination. What is wrong with all of you? Don’t you know that 2’s were forged in the fires of hell by Sauron, Satan and Santa Claus whilst drinking soju and injecting ketamine in a cat cafe? Clearly not.

However, when you are on a bus for around 3 hours every weekend, travelling to and from Gwangju, to direct a choir and assist the directing of a play, occasionally your novel seems boring, and “The Room 2″* infuriating. Thus, I found myself giving into curiosity and downloading… the game.

The first move was okay:

The 2’s went away,

a 4 took it’s place,

and another 4 turned up.

What my friends had failed to mention, was that there were more 2’s to come. That I had a 50% chance of getting another 2 in a potentially indestructible position. The rules of the game had to change; I became addicted to eliminating 2’s. If I managed to get none on the board I gave myself 5 points. For all you 2048 addictees, you might be interested to know that this method is a surprisingly (or not so surprisingly) effective way of getting to the 2048 tile.

For me, 2048, has become something akin to a first person shooter for “2” haters.

It’s awesome!

*For Mum: The Room 2 is a phone game by the Myst people that you should probably buy. 2048 is a phone game not by the Myst people that you would also enjoy.